[1] The armored cruisers were considered more desirable than additional battleships at the time because their greater speed and steaming range made them better suited for responses to colonial crises.

[4] The ships also were heavily decorated and furnished with wood, which the Spanish failed to remove before combat and which would feed fires after enemy shell hits.

The Infanta Maria Teresa-class armored cruisers were active units, serving both in European and American waters.

After the outbreak of the Spanish–American War, all three were assigned to the 1st Squadron, commanded by Vice Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete, in which all three were sunk at the Battle of Santiago de Cuba.

Laid down in January 1889, launched in 1891, and completed in 1893,[9] Almirante Oquendo was in Havana, Cuba when war with the United States became likely in the spring of 1898.